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Grok 4.6 vs Mistral Small 4

Comparing Grok 4.6 and Mistral Small 4 across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

xAI · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Grok 4.6 and Mistral Small 4 trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.

On price, Mistral Small 4 is roughly 11.4x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Grok 4.6 also accepts a larger context window (500,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Grok 4.6

  • you process long inputs — it offers a 500,000 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026

Choose Mistral Small 4

  • cost matters — it's about 11.4x cheaper per token
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Grok 4.6
xAI
Mistral Small 4
Mistral AI
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
$2.00 / M
$0.15 / M
Output price
$6.00 / M
$0.60 / M
Context window
500,000
256,000
Released
Aug 2026
Mar 2026
License
Proprietary
Apache 2.0

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

Grok 4.6 and Mistral Small 4don't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Arena Performance

Playground indexes and blind preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Mistral Small 4 costs less

For input processing, Grok 4.6 ($2.00/1M tokens) is 13.3x more expensive than Mistral Small 4 ($0.15/1M tokens).

For output processing, Grok 4.6 ($6.00/1M tokens) is 10.0x more expensive than Mistral Small 4 ($0.60/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Grok 4.6 is more expensive than Mistral Small 4.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Wed Aug 26 2026 • llm-stats.com
xAI
Grok 4.6
Input tokens$2.00
Output tokens$6.00
Best providerxAI
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 4
Input tokens$0.15
Output tokens$0.60
Best providerMistral
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Grok 4.6 accepts 500,000 input tokens compared to Mistral Small 4's 256,000 tokens. Only Mistral Small 4 specifies output context (256,000 tokens).

xAI
Grok 4.6
Input500,000 tokens
Output- tokens
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 4
Input256,000 tokens
Output256,000 tokens
Wed Aug 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both Grok 4.6 and Mistral Small 4 support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Grok 4.6

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Mistral Small 4

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok 4.6 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Mistral Small 4 uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Grok 4.6

Proprietary

Closed source

Mistral Small 4

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok 4.6 was released on 2026-08-12, while Mistral Small 4 was released on 2026-03-16.

Grok 4.6 is 5 months newer than Mistral Small 4.

Grok 4.6

Aug 12, 2026

2 weeks ago

4mo newer
Mistral Small 4

Mar 16, 2026

5 months ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Grok 4.6 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-02-01, while Mistral Small 4's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Grok 4.6's training data extends to 2026-02-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Mistral Small 4's cutoff date.

Grok 4.6

Feb 2026

Mistral Small 4

—

Provider Availability

Grok 4.6 is available from xAI. Mistral Small 4 is available from Mistral AI.

Grok 4.6

xai logo
xAI
Input Price:Input: $2.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $6.00/1M

Mistral Small 4

mistral logo
Mistral
Input Price:Input: $0.15/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.60/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Grok 4.6 and Mistral Small 4 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok 4.6
✓ Preferred
Mistral Small 4
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Grok 4.6 vs Mistral Small 4.

Which is better, Grok 4.6 or Mistral Small 4?

Grok 4.6 (xAI) and Mistral Small 4 (Mistral AI) each have strengths in different areas. Compare their benchmark scores, pricing, context windows, and capabilities above to determine which fits your needs.

How does Grok 4.6 compare to Mistral Small 4 in benchmarks?

Grok 4.6 scores CursorBench v3.2: 69.9%, DeepSWE 1.1: 65.9%, FrontierCode: 61.3%, AA-Index: 61.0%, GDPval-AA: 58.4%. Mistral Small 4 scores AIME 2025: 83.8%, MMLU-Pro: 78.0%, AA-LCR: 71.2%, GPQA: 71.2%, LiveCodeBench: 63.6%.

Is Grok 4.6 cheaper than Mistral Small 4?

Mistral Small 4 is 13.3x cheaper for input tokens. Grok 4.6 costs $2.00/M input and $6.00/M output via xai. Mistral Small 4 costs $0.15/M input and $0.60/M output via mistral.

What are the context window sizes for Grok 4.6 and Mistral Small 4?

Grok 4.6 supports 500K tokens and Mistral Small 4 supports 256K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Grok 4.6 and Mistral Small 4?

Key differences include context window (500K vs 256K), input pricing ($2.00 vs $0.15/M), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Grok 4.6 and Mistral Small 4?

Grok 4.6 is developed by xAI and Mistral Small 4 is developed by Mistral AI.

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